PPCblog — how to improve your PPC campaigns

Pay Per Click advertising — PPC for short — can be an excellent method of getting your message in front of potential customers. PPC ads are those ads you see on the search results pages of Google, Yahoo, and other websites. You may not have noticed them — the ones marked "Sponsored". If an ad says "Sponsored", it's a paid advertisement, not a regular search result.

As an example, here's a screenshot of PPC ads at Google. Notice the pink box at the top, and the entire right-hand column … they're all PPC ads.

Now, you can do this too, by signing up for an account at Google, Yahoo, etc., noting which keyword phrases you'd like your website to be found for, writing your ads … and that's about the time you discover that you'll be bidding against competitors for your ad placements. There are other issues as well — and, while of course you'd like the top position, your competitor(s) may be driving the bidding price beyond what is feasible for you, or simply what you'd like to pay. And thus you may find your advertising dollars draining from your account without doing you as much good as they should.

How does one get around this? There are tricks of the trade, of course, but finding them — and sorting the wheat from the chaff — can be a daunting process. That's where PPCblog can help. It's run by Aaron Wall, named by Invesp as Top Marketer of 2009.

Learn how to run effective PPC campaigns

First, I should state that I've been lending a hand as a moderator at Aaron's SEObook private subscription forums. However, those who know me I know that I don't toss out recommendations easily; I guess I'm one of those "my word is my bond" people. So: Aaron has not paid me for this review, nor has he offered anything. That said, the above is how Aaron came to give me a "peek under the hood", as it were.

That said, while I know a bit about PPC, I'm not an expert, but what I've found at PPCblog is pretty impressive. First, there's the publicly-available PPCblog itself, where Aaron posts articles of help. Then — there's even juicier stuff, which is accessible "behind the wall" via a monthly paid subscription.

Since it's a paid site, I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that you'd get enough information, nicely and logically laid out, to understand what you're doing and create your own PPC campaigns based on your own criteria, whether you're brand new or a seasoned marketer (the website contains testimonials from some "names" in the industry). Just for starters, you get what I'd call a brilliant orientation before you delve into the details.

On top of that, you're not stuck with just training modules — it also includes the private community forums, where people ask questions, discuss issues — and you'll find Aaron and his partner, Geordie Carswell (no slouch himself — read the Tours page), answering questions from members.

Even if you're not intending on running your own PPC campaigns — even if you're going to hire someone else to do it — it may pay to understand enough such that you can evaluate your PPC team's effectiveness.

Or, as PPCblog puts it:

It's generally accepted that there are two main ways to approach PPC marketing:

a: "Wing It"… and bleed money.
Or:b: Learn from the best, avoid common pitfalls, and get profitable fast.

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